New York Republicans Vow To Rebound

New York Republicans lost seats in state and federal offices on Election Day.

Republicans in January will hold six of the state’s 27 seats in the U.S. House, down from the eight seats they won two years ago.

In the state Senate, Republicans are on the verge of losing their 33-29 seat majority. Democrats believe they are poised to pick up as many as four seats, but two races are too close to call.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand appears to have broken a state record on Tuesday. She received 72 percent of the vote against Republican Wendy Long. Sen. Charles Schumer held the record: 71 percent of the vote in 2004.

Cox said he was confident that Republicans would maintain the Senate majority.

In many of the competitive campaigns across New York, Democrats knocked their Republican opponents for being pro-life and linking them to the conservative stances of Republican leaders across the country.

Women’s rights groups campaigned and spent money in key races for Congress and state Legislature.

“Our advocates’ enthusiasm during this campaign season was over the top,” M. Tracey Brooks, president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of New York, said in a statement after Tuesday’s elections. “They are angry at attempts by House leaders to cut access to cancer screenings, birth control and safe, legal abortion, so they turned their anger into action.”

Some Republicans said the party in New York didn’t do enough to counter Democrats’ claims.

“Here in New York state, Republicans have not crafted a coherent, philosophical issue agenda to counter the prevailing Democrat Party orthodoxy,” said John Faso, a former Assembly Republican minority who lost races for state comptroller in 2002 and governor in 2006.